Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Income tax: inter-head adjustment of losses under section 71

Friends,

Today i want to share Set off of loss from one head against income from another head (inter-head adjustment) [Section 71] with you

Where in respect of any assessment year, if after setting off losses against income under the same head, the net result of the computation under any head of income, other than "Capital gains" is a loss, the assessee shall be entitled to have the amount of such a loss set off against his income, if any, assess able for that assessment year under any other head. for instance, loss in business may be set off against income from house property and loss under the head income from other sources may be set off against profits of business. loss relating to house property can similarly be set off against income under other heads. However, losses under the head "Capital gains" and "Business or Profession" shall be treated as under:

Loss under the head "Capital gains": Such capital loss, whether short-term or long-term, shall not be allowed to be set off again under any other head. it shall however be allowed to be carried forward.

Loss under the head business or profession [Section 71(2A)]: Where in respect of any assessment year, the net result of the computation under the head "profits and gains of business or profession" is a loss and the assessee has income assessable under the head "salaries", the assessee shall not be entitled to have such loss set off against such income. However, it shall be allowed to set off from income under any other head.

As already discussed, in the following cases as intra-head adjustment was not permitted, hence, inter-head adjustment will also be not permitted:

(a) loss from a speculation business;

(b) loss from a specified business referred to in section 35AD;

(c) loss from the activity of owing and maintaining race horses;

(d) loss of lottery, etc. cannot be set off against winning from lotteries, crossword puzzles, card games, etc.;